I
can’t believe it’s already been a year since I wrote the original
post on this matter. We got much more information about Eren now, and
it’s about time that I make an updated version.
Isayama
put a lot of development into Eren’s character during the first 5
arcs. While Armin and Mikasa didn’t get that much development in certain
arcs even though they are the main characters, Eren’s development was
in central focus in each arc. It showed us that he cherishes and
loves his friends, and that he values each person’s life. Levi
quickly realized this after meeting him, which is why he formed his new team with
Eren’s most valuable friends, because he knew that Eren would work
even harder to protect them.
But
many people seemed to forget who Eren really is. Everything that Eren
has done post timeskip contradicts his earlier development.
Four years ago, Hajime Isayama alluded to the possibility of the friendship between Eren and Armin coming to an end.
“[Armin’s story is] still up in the air for me, but I just don’t see ending things with him being best friends with Eren forever.”
– Hajime Isayama, Attack in Titan: The Anime Guide (2014)
Now, Chapter 112 has finally made this possibility real. Zeke has taught him much during their time together in Marley whether in person or through letters, and Eren now sees his friends in a new light because of it.
Some people are of the opinion that none of what Eren has said is true to him, and that he’s lying to his friends to protect them from whatever he is about to do for the sake of Eldia through Zeke’s currently unknown plan. But after some thinking, I’ve begun to see Eren’s conversation in a different light.
Eren is not lying to his friends. He is lying to himself.
I’m sorry Anon, I’m not quite sure what you mean! Are you saying Eren might “sisterzone” Mikasa or that the writing is? I’ll answer both, if that’s okay.
The writing definitely is not “sisterzoning” Mikasa. Mikasa’s feelings I think are abundantly clear after chapter 50, in which it’s entirely possible she was moving to kiss him during the Clash of the Titans Arc. For the record, I didn’t ship it until chapter 50, though I did always think she had feelings for him.
I don’t think it’s a realistic reading to deny that Mikasa canonically has romantic feelings for Eren–it’s kind of blatant. Furthermore, Falco’s feelings for Gabi also clearly have a romantic component; pretending to be siblings doesn’t really change that and I just don’t think that situation is the best comparison as I doubt it’ll have further relevance.
As for how Eren sees Mikasa, that’s a different story all together, and Isayama pointing out Eren sees her as a motherly presence is not the same thing as saying Mikasa sees herself in a maternal sense (but there is some Oedipal-ness there). And it’s true–Mikasa is always trying to protect him as Carla asked her to do, but she would have done that anyways because she pretty clearly sees him as a major part of her identity, even to an unhealthy extent which I’ve talked about before, and that protectiveness is actually pushing Eren away in some sense. I do think the end goal of Mikasa’s arc has to be growing away from Eren; that being said, it’s not unrealistic to imagine that Eren would realize they could have had a happy future if, if, if.
If the circumstances of their world weren’t so cruel.
If they didn’t have to constantly fight to survive.
If Eren didn’t have a time limit on his lifespan.
If he’d decided not to go to Marlay.
Eren’s arc is tragic as hell. Even looking at the symbolism in the scene from chapter 50. Mikasa is essentially telling him she loves him, maybe wants to kiss him, and he focuses on I want to fight to save you. In doing that, he saves her, but he also loses that moment.
Eren will probably help save humanity even if Armin is the actual hero, but the cost is pretty clearly going to be his relationship with his loved ones–though I do absolutely think Mikasa and Armin will love Eren no matter how they disapprove of his actions, and I think he will love them regardless. But the closeness and the future, however short, they might have had, is probably gone.
And Mikasa knows this as she says here:
There isn’t a happy ending for them together like she’d have wanted, but she’s still clinging as we see in recent chapters wherein her clinging almost leads to her and Armin getting blown up.
To save the rest of her loved ones, Mikasa won’t be able to save Eren. I think that’s definitely where the story is going, but I do think it’s also realistic that Eren and Mikasa will have a moment wherein Eren acknowledges what could have been, and that he loves her, regardless of whether there is a romantic component.
I personally think there is likely to be (the set up is obvious, like with Touka and Kaneki in TG or Ochaco and Izuku in BNHA–it’s def a darker story with no hope for a happy ending for them, but main female character + main male character in this kind of story with a scene like chapter 50 that is clearly designed to put romance in the reader’s mind, is almost certainly intended to be romantic, plus we know Mikasa feels romantically). That being said, I also think it doesn’t actually matter whether or not Eren acknowledges romantic feelings for Mikasa. I just want him to acknowledge, and tell her, that he loves her and is grateful to her–because he does and is, regardless of whether that is familial or platonic or romantic, and the exact definition of that love doesn’t matter to the overall tragedy and beauty of their story. But acknowledging Mikasa’s personal romantic feelings would be a beautiful ending, imo, but that’s just my preference.
“The sun will rise. Mikasa will support Eren.” It’s been the truth of the shingeki world for 109 chapters. Mikasa has disagreed with Eren plenty. There’s nothing new in that. But potentially withdrawing her support is ground breaking. It’s the sort of character development many of us have wanted, myself included.
Whatever happens I don’t want it to be forever. Life is too short (literally) for Eren, Armin and Mikasa to permanently part ways. But for now I’m very excited for this development.
Another thing that excited me about the last chapter was seeing Louise and the callback to an event I’ve talked about very recently concerning Mikasa’s development.
I’ve referred to her salute here as the beginnings of her development into a proud soldier and defender of the peace. What is especially significant about this development is that it is wholly separate to her love for Eren. So, seeing Louise give the same salute here in trying to convince her to help Eren ignites a certain cognitive dissonance within her.
She’s seeing, in an image, her duties as a soldier combined with her desire to help Eren.
Hi! Sorry but I’m going to play a safe card with this question lol. I think both speculations have validity.
On one hand, I think Louise’s words “only with strength can we protect someone” and “you’ve been saved by Jaeger, right?” impelled Mikasa to reconsider what consequences can “strength” and the will to “save” bring about, especially after she saw Eren launched the attack in Marley. So the flashback is in line with her change of thinking. In this sense, it is more like an internal self-questioning which led to her alternative viewing of the past.
On the other hand, I totally understand why people suspect her memories are altered. It’s because of the headache. The headache forced her to think about her past, as if there is some unnatural power activating her thoughts. She didn’t want to do it. If all those flashbacks just happened like a normal monologue, then it wouldn’t have seemed so weird.
So yah, I’m standing astride both options, lame, I know lol. We just need more information from Isayama.
Hiyaaa there. I agree with you! Jean wasn’t inaccurate in saying that there were inconsistencies in Mikasa’s “Eren’s doing this for us,” claim. But he and Connie were not correct in their assessment of what happeend post-Sasha death either- Eren was laughing… but we readers saw his face which indicated it was out of horror/pain a la Hannes death. That tells me two things: 1) we’re probably being set up for further 104th disconnect and 2) that, like you said, the same Eren that jumped in a titans mouth to save Armin/told the 104th he cared about them is the same Eren that dragged them to battle. What we readers know about that moment is different than what Jean and Connie saw, which means there’s more to the story than Connie’s observation and what Jean was (as Jean does) so bluntly stating.
Right now my understanding of Eren still falls in line with what I wrote a couple months back which is basically: life of friends/family (but see below paragraph lol)> defeat titans/marley > feelings of friends/family. He prioritizes the injustices being forced onto them over everything except for the bare necessity of them being alive and without injury; emotion and hurt feelings falling outside of the bare necessity category. Hence why the moment Eren cracked wasn’t when Mikasa, Armin, Levi, or even Hange showed disappointment in him. It was when he learned that Sasha had died. In other words, their feelings over having to kill the enemy weren’t of concern to him. Nor were their opinions on whether or not he was reckless. But the loss of Sasha’s life is what struck him.
The addendum here is that while I think “life of friends/family > defeat titans/marley > feelings of friends/family” still applies, he’s going to be more likely to gamble the “life of friends/family” category if the risk for any one of them is particularly high (Historia.. maybe) or if the risk for all of them is particularly high (gotta go get Zeke RIGHT NOW for ~reasons beyond the normie comprehension~ other wise EvEryBoDy DiEs No TiMe FoR ThInKiNG.) In other words, I think Eren had one hell of a reason for doing what he did. His actions (i.e. forcing the SC to retrieve him) ended up getting Sasha killed. But I think he believed that not taking action would have sealed death for them all.
Like I said though, we need to pinpoint Eren’s exact reasoning for going over to Marley in the way that he did. Right now we don’t have anything in stone. My guess is that whatever the specifics, he was of the mind “desperate times call for desperate measures.” Eren certainly has the propensity to disobey orders. But putting lives on the line (particularly the ones he loves) is something he’s refused or been ashamed of in the past.
As someone in the camp of those who do not trust Zeke, Eren’s cooperation with him has long been a point of concern. Chapter 108 eased some of that, but opened up a totally new and disturbing possibility.
My end game theory has been that when Zeke and Eren touch, Zeke will be able to control the power by virtue of being a royal. In chapter 108, Armin theorized the opposite. He stated that Eren’s purpose is the one that will be dominant. This would mean that Zeke has no real power in the equation. Eren can safely team up with Zeke and spare Historia from becoming a titan.
I can’t imagine Zeke is ok with that. He’s been planning this moment for years. He wouldn’t leave something so important to chance. Zeke is playing nice, but if his ultimate goal is contrary to Eren’s, he needs a way to force Eren to comply.
Chapter 108 may have shown us how he’s going to accomplish this.
Paradis has been foolishly accepting food and drink from an enemy combatant’s cook for three years. If that food or wine has been tainted with spinal fluid, it means Zeke has been secretly building a titan army for years. The 104th has mentioned the delicious food and drink too many times for me not to be suspicious. It’s interesting too that Yelena is the one who set Nicolo up to be their chef.
While I don’t trust Zeke, I still believe Eren’s entire reasoning right now involves protecting his friends. It’s become crazy and misguided, but they are still at the heart of his thinking. Threatening to titanize them would be a powerful bargaining chip. The most powerful in fact.
Call me crazy but the wine bottle is the most exciting thing to happen in the story in a long time. I feel like the pieces are falling into place for a final battle between Zeke and Eren – one that Eren can’t completely win.
If he sides with Zeke, he protects his friends but humanity may be doomed. If he takes out Zeke, Historia will need to be titanized to accept Zeke’s power. People are going to die and Eren will have only himself to blame for bringing Zeke onto the island.
It’s terrible. It’s tragic. It’s everything I love and hate about this story.
I’ve seen some criticism of the Survey Corps for not allowing Eren any contact with Zeke. Even now, rather than reuniting the brothers as promised, they are secluding Zeke in the woods. It seems unfair to some. I’ve seen others point to it as a possible reason for Eren’s rage.
The thing to remember is that Eren and Zeke don’t need to be in their titan forms to make Founding Titan Magic. Eren first activated the power while human by fist bumping mindless titan Dina. Even now in his human form he unlocks memories by holding hands with Royal Human Historia.
When Eren touches Historia, the power transfer goes both ways. She’s affected as well. It unlocks her memories. So it’s possible that the moment Zeke and Eren make physical contact on Paradis, Zeke will have similar abilities awakened within him. He can already create, command and control titans. He may only need a tiny power boost to increase those abilities. Eren’s touch could provide that. It’s possible that Zeke and Eren might need to simply shake hands or brush shoulders to set off the rumbling if one of them desires it. So I don’t blame the Survey Corps for their caution.
midnight-in-town 